VISUAL JOURNAL JUMP-STARTER QUESTIONS

Find the word youre wrestling with. Answer any & all questions to help narrow down a good concept for your work.

IDENTITY
1. Who am I and Who are we? How do we show others who we are? Do we have a
single identity? What is identity not? What makes you, you?
2. What are some ways in which people express their identity? In literature? In music? In
clothing? In their homes?
3. What aspects of your identity are easily noticed and which are hidden? To what extent
is our identity determined by the society in which we live?
4. How does an artists identity come through in their art ? How might their different
cultural backgrounds affect their work.
5. How is your identity related to groups, communities, or other social structures? How is
it related to personal experience? What is me and what is something that the rest of
the world has said that I am
6. How do makeup, accessories, clothing, and other props affect identity? How do they
affect the way we present ourselves to the world? How can these things shape or
create an alter ego, personality, or identity?
CONFLICT
1. How is conflict different from and/or similar to war?
2. What is the difference between conflict in relation to our personal lives as compared to
conflict on a national or international scale? What are examples of personal conflicts we
have? What are the national or international conflicts we are aware of or perhaps
involved in?
3. How do the stories about conflicts or wars change with the storyteller? Consider the
statement, History is told by the winners.
RELATIONSHIPS
1. A relationship is the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are
connected, or the state of being connected. From that definition, list a type of
relationship between each: concepts, objects, and people.
2. Describe or define the terms sympathy, empathy, and compassion. Discuss how these
feelings influence our daily life.
MEMORY
1. What and whom do public monuments usually depict? Why do monuments exist?
2. How can you as an artist use historical sources and influences to say something new?
3. How can memories be shared with other people or translated into visual form? What
are different ways people keep memories?
4. What is personal memory and what is cultural memory? Compare and contrast different
examples of each to see how they are related and how they are unique.

TRANSFORMATION
1. Define and discuss the idea of transformation. What types of changes can
transformation involve? What are some examples of transformation (people, places, or
things) from your life?
2. How might art support the act of transformation or reinvention?
3. Where do cultural trends come from, and how do they spread?
4. Create a drawing that incorporates both additive and reductive marks as a way of
representing the transformations of a particular room, public space, or element in
nature over time.
5. Can artists, works of art, or writers, and works of literature provoke change or transform
our way of thinking? How?
6. How are transformations of people, places, and things documented?
INVESTIGATION
1. How do artists push beyond what they already know and readily see?
2. Can acts of engagement and exploration be works of art in themselves?
3. Describe the ways in which artists and other professionals learn about new ideas,
processes, and strategies. What kinds of approaches do they take to build on their own
experiences and inquire about things they do not know?
4. When do exploration and experimentation become art?
PLACE
1. Do we define a place or does the place define us?
2. Think about a place that has influenced them. It might be a place that is particularly
memorable, or one where an important event occurred that shaped their identity either
positively or negatively. Jot down words that describe how the place looks and smells,
how it feels, what sounds they associate with it, why the place is important to them,
and what about that place they will carry with them forever.
3. How is the cultural history of a place defined? Maintained? Assimilated?
4. Describe how one creates the feeling of home. Is it a building? A feeling? The people
close to you? The decoration?
5. If you were to draw, paint, or re-create a specific place, would you choose to work on
location, from a photograph, from sketches, or from memory? Explain your choice.
PERFECTION
1. What is something you consider to be perfect? Would someone else agree with you?
Do you think you will still consider it perfect in 10 years?
2. Do you view perfectionism positively or negatively? Why?
3. The ethical question of perfection concerns not whether man is perfect, but whether
he should be. And if he should be, then how is this to be attained?

SPIRITUALITY
1. Define the word spirituality and differentiate the concept from a definition of religion.
Identify and discuss works of art they have seen that express a spiritual theme or evoke
a spiritual feeling but not a religious belief.
2. Which do you think evokes a more spiritual mood and why: art that abstract or art that
is representational?
3. How have the concepts of spirituality changed in response to such factors as the
passage of time, increasing ethnic diversity in the country and scientific/technological
advances?
4. Light is often used as a metaphor. What are some of the ideas it is meant to represent?
What have you read that featured light as an important element? What role does light
play if any in places of worship?
CONSUMPTION
1. Read this definition of consumption: The intake of objects, images and popular ideas
into ones home, body or daily life. Make a list of 10 things you consume on a daily
basis.
2. Explore the difference between conscious and unconscious consumption.
3. How are stereotypes linked to consumption? What are Americans known for
consuming? Choose another culture and list 5 things you think they consume.
4. Think about all of the information we encounter every day. What do we take in and
what do we tune out?
WORK
1. What ratio of work to leisure would be your ideal? Answer using percentages.
2. Are the people in your country famous for working hard or for having a good social
life?
3. Which age-groups are worst affected by unemployment in your country?
4. What are the causes of unemployment and how is the problem solved in your country?
5. Do women have equality of job opportunities? Are they paid as well as men?
6. Are there many migrant workers in your country? If so, what kind of jobs do they do?
What are their working conditions like?
7. Do workers in your country pay a lot of income tax to the government?
8. Do people with large salaries pay a much higher rate of tax than other workers? Do you
think they should?
COMPASSION
1. Describe or define the terms sympathy, empathy, and compassion. Discuss how these
feelings influence our daily life.
2. How might the notion of compassion inform the artistic process?
3. Do artists have a social responsibility? To whom? To what?
4. Do art objects possess the power to convey empathy or compassion? Discuss why, or
why not.

PLAY
1. Remember some of the roles you adopted when you were younger and some of your
childhood interests, for example collecting, drawing, singing, dancing, or acting. Do
you still have these interests? In what ways have they changed or stayed the same, and
how have they been influential?
2. Jessica Stockholder says I think what kids do is play. [It is] a kind of thinking and
learning that doesnt have a predetermined end. Do you still have experiences that fit
this description?
3. What do the terms high and low culture describe? What are the similarities and
differences between them?
4. What is humor? What are the differences between sarcasm, satire, and irony? How are
these terms related to humor and to each other?
5. What are the limits of humor? What are the implications of using irony, satire, or
sarcasm when addressing issues of diversity, poverty, or homelessness? Can humor
hurt?
BOUNDARIES
1. Where do people find privacy? Why is privacy important?
2. What kinds of limits or rules do you create for yourself, or do others create for you?
3. How, when, by whom, and why are boundaries made?
4. What are the relationships between individual identity and identity mediated by
technology and advertising? How are the intersections and boundaries established
between them?
5. What makes a work of art a work of art? Is contemporary art defined by particular
boundaries or parameters? Can a work of art be invisible?
POWER
1. What images or symbols do you associate with the word power? With the word
control?
2. Identify people in your daily life who have power. What does it mean to be powerful?
What makes a person powerful? How do people secure, wield, or exercise their power?
3. What personal, political, or social issues did artists address in the 17th, 18th, and 19th
centuries in their work? What issues do artists address in their work today? Does an
artist have a responsibility to address personal, political, or social issues in his or her
work? Why or why not?
4. Does gender an important factor in determining an individual's opportunities and
choices in life? How have societal opinions about gender affected past generations
including those of your parents and grandparents? How do contemporary ideas about
gender affect current generations?

TIME
1. How is time marked and recorded in different cultures?
2. Discuss phrases that use the word time, for instance, time is money. What do these
phrases tell us about how our society conceptualizes time?
3. Study the art and culture of a civilization or people who lived at least 100 years ago.
Research the parallels between that time and culture and our own. Create an artwork in
the style of that culture that highlights the parallels.
4. How do our perceptions of the world change over time?
LEGACY/HISTORY
1. Why do we break with some traditions and perpetuate others?
2. What kinds of things happen when we engage with art? What are the lingering effects
of being moved or inspired by a work of visual art, music, or a story?
3. Distinguish between lessons we learn in school and those we learn in life. How do such
lessons affect us?
4. Examine a tradition in which you participate. How did you learn about it? If it has
changed over time, describe those changes.
5. If you could personally guarantee a single story to be passed down to future
generations what would that story be, what form would it take, and why?
6. Why are some stories told, as opposed to others? Why do some stories continue to be
told over time while others are lost?
7. Does history represent all of the people who have participated in it? Why or why not?
8. In what ways does personal or family history affect or influence our understanding of
the past?
9. Why do some artists choose history as a starting point for their work? How have artists
shaped history itself?
10. What are the various ways we learn about history? Which films, written accounts, or
other sources provide the most reliable and compelling
information about history?
ECOLOGY
1. Research and discuss the term ecology. How does the term apply to the manmade
environment as well as to the natural world? How does it relate to issues that are
currently in the news?
2. How do ideas about the human relationship to nature vary across world cultures?
Across historical time periods? What are some of the ways these
ideas have been expressed in visual, musical, or literary form?
3. What are the most pressing environmental issues that society
faces today? What role can artists play in addressing these issues?
4. How is an artists process a kind of ecology?

COMMUNICATION
1. How is visual art related to spoken and written language? In what ways is visual art a
language? How do artists and writers reveal their authorship (hand or voice) in
their work? (Holzer)
2. In what instances might authors or artists choose to remain anonymous?
3. In what instances is written and visual information censored? By whom?
4. In what ways can art be political? What does political art look and sound like?
5. Can a work of art be political if the artists intentions are not political? Why or why not?
6. What is the difference between visual signs and symbols? What are examples of signs
and symbols from daily life? What do they communicate and how?
7. How do ads communicate their messages? What makes advertisements effective?
Which ads do you pay attention to and why? How are images that are created by artists
different from the ones created by advertisers?
8. In what forums do citizens have the opportunity to express their opinions or voice
concerns about issues that are important to them?
9. What is public art? How does it differ from art that is exhibited in galleries or museums?
What are examples of public art in your community

BIG QUESTIONS / Art PROMPTS

Begin by determining the basic narrative of the story: What do you want to communicate?
Then identify and gather various objects and media that can help tell the story. Finally,
determine the composition: How will the story be told?
Is it the artist who gives the work power? Or is it the viewer? (Janine Antoni) When viewing
an artwork, do you need to know the story or the context behind the work in order to
understand it?
How does one become an artist? How does one choose a profession? Are professions always
the choice of the individual?
Everythings been done a million times. (Elizabeth Murray) Is it possible to make art that is
completely new? Why or why not?
Is beauty an important aspect of art? How would you describe what you find beautiful in art?
How do factors like personal background, perception, patience, and curiosity factor into the
ways we read works of art?
What are the differences between conceptual and aesthetic concerns in art? Is one more
important than the other? Why or why not?
Is it more important for a work of art to be personal or universal?
What are the most important skills an artist working today can have?